The Unknown Florida

Anyone driving, cycling or walking through Tallahassee with reasonably open eyes must have noticed that murals have become very popular here. There is not a part of town where you do not find a building or large structure with a colorful mural painted on it. The epicenter, though, is Railroad Square where almost all old warehouses and other buildings are now showcases for large murals. Loosely defined, as I am not an art historian, I think of a mural as a piece of artwork that is painted directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent structure. Historically, old Italian fresco painted by, for example, Michelangelo, come to mind. In more modern times murals can be associated with socialist realism, depicting to the public the heroism of everyday farmers, workers and soldiers. And, of course, there are the Mexican muralists like Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros who artistically contributed to the Mexican revolution, influenced by their Soviet peers. Of course, later Soviet muralists were then influenced by their Mexican counterparts. But I do not want to write a history of murals; other experts have done that expertly. I just realized their recent popularity in Tallahassee and took some photographs. What I noticed though is that some of the local murals still have a political message, like the portraits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Rosa Parks on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard just south of the Oakland Cemetery, without the grandiose style of socialist realism.

Most murals, however, do not have a political message but are solely meant as decorative pieces. Therefore, in this (and later) posts I will simply present some photos of the most intriguing pieces of art.

Two of my favorites are the Night-Owl and the Jim Morrison Mugshot at Railroad Square. Night-Owl is not the official name of the mural, but I titled it that way because I took the photo at night and the painted shadows on the mural give it a unique visual flavor. The Jim Morrison mural is from a photo taken in Tallahassee when the local police arrested the later Doors frontman.